Family Get-A-Way

On February 5th the kids had no school. We decided to plan a little family get-a-way to enjoy a break. We have been wanting to stay at the "Staybridge Suites" up in West Valley ever since we saw it being built. There is a cool water slide that can be seen coming out from the hotel. This caught our eye since most hotels don't have a water slide. As we began looking into staying there, we realized it really wasn't very expensive for all it included. There is a fun water area for the kids which include a water slide and kiddy pool area, a theater room, and a really good hot breakfast. We invited Jeff, Emily & kids to join us there for one night and had such a great time.

We checked in around 1:30 p.m. on Friday. We got one of the 2 bedroom suites. It had a king bed in the master bedroom and the other bedroom had 2 queen beds. Then there was a pull-out bed in the living area. The 4 oldest boys shared the one bedroom and Camille slept on the pull-out bed. Bradley slept on the floor in Byron & I's room.

We met up with Jeff & Emily's family and went to the theater room to watch a movie. What an awesome room! There was a huge screen on the wall with 10 leather theater chairs that reclined. Luckily the kids are pretty small and were able to squeeze two per chair. We watched "Ratatouille." Most of the kids were enthralled the whole time. Cadan & Bradley, however, enjoyed playing with the chairs and running around the room. Cameron, Johnathan, Tanner, and Cooper

Camille, Alyssa & Ashlyn

Cadan & Bradley

The seats were so comfortable & even had drink holders.

After the movie, we headed to the pool area while Byron & Jeff went out to get pizza for dinner. The pool was so fun! There was a really small kids area that had some cool ropes to swing from, slides and water shooting all over. There was also a basketball hoop that many of the older children played for hours. The large water slide was also a hit, other than there were height restrictions of 48 inches tall. This excluded Carter & Parker and can I just say they weren't so happy about his one. Luckily there were plenty of other things to do which helped distract them.

We went up above the pool area to the arcade area. Some of the kids enjoyed playing there after eating. Then we headed back down to swim some more.

The hot tub is shaped like Mickey Mouse. Bradley was so excited when he saw this pool - he wanted to swim in it. Unfortunately, he isn't allowed because he isn't over 5. He wasn't happy at all when he wasn't allowed to swim in Mickey Mouse's pool. Parker & Carter swinging from the ropes in the pool area.

After we had our fill of the pool, we headed back to our room and played games for a few hours. The adults played Rook together while the others played their own games or watched a movie. Everybody seemed to be having a great time.

Tanner, Cooper & Camille playing Phase 10.

Ashlyn & Parker playing Accumulation.

Johnathan & Cameron were enjoying the movie, "Bolt." They are true cousins when sharing a bowl of ice-cream doesn't even phase them:).

The adults having fun playing Rook. We played girls against boys the first time around then couples after that. It was so fun to enjoy a fun game with adults and the kids were practically entertained the whole time.

Now these 2, I'm not exactly what they were doing - it looks like they were getting into mischief to me :).

Dad & Mom Beck also came for about 1 hour to see us since they don't live very far away. We had fun visiting for a while.

After we had played for about quite a while, we all headed to bed. Here are Parker & Carter right before they fell asleep.

I think the kids all slept great with all of the swimming and playing from the day before. The morning did come pretty quickly, however. There is just never enough sleep to be had with 6 early risers!

We met Jeff & Emily & kids downstairs to eat breakfast. What a spread of food! We had omelets, bacon, muffins, juices, Belgium waffles, fruit and much more. My kids were loving the choices of food and that they could go back and eat as much as they wanted. After getting more than we ever needed, we went back up to our room to get ready to go swimming again.

I am so grateful that my children are such great swimmers. The only one we really need to worry about is Bradley and every once in a while a very daring child that does crazy things. They are definitely fish in the water and seem to never get tired of it - we are always having to say it is time to go long before they think it is time.

Byron is playing basketball with the boys.

Parker with the basketball.

Cute Carter has found out a better way to make a basket.

Byron & I in the hot tub together.

Bradley enjoying himself.
Cute Carter had to keep checking his height to make sure he still couldn't go on the water slide. I wish he grew faster, but it just wasn't going to happen. He was a pretty good sport about it, though. There are definitely times when being short really STINKS!
Bradley & I after we had our fill of swimming.
Jeff & Alyssa.
Johnathan relaxing a little too much!

After swimming it was time to check-out. What a fun and relaxing two days. We needed that break so much and it was all the better with family that joined us. Thanks Jeff & Emily for coming with us!